My Convict

4-He's Back

Brandy

"Where are we going?" He repeats again, this time his voice sounds rougher. Something cold pressed against my side and it doesn't take a genius to figure out it's a gun. His other hand moves quickly, unbuckling my seatbelt. "What? Can't speak?" He asks, teasingly. I blink. My mouth opens to speak but nothing comes out. "Speak." He commands.

Realization suddenly hits me.

I have to speak.

"We were going to the store," I respond, not even recognizing my own voice. "But now, I think it's best if we just stayed home."

"That's a good idea... a very smart one if we're being quite honest," Elijah says, opening the car door. He removes the gun from my side and takes off Elliot's seatbelt. "Come on kid, let's go inside and make you something to eat." I thought that Elliot would put up a fight, seeing as he barely even knows Elijah and hates being touched by people he doesn't know, but I'm sadly mistaken. Elliot wraps his arms around his father's neck and lets him carry him out the car. He doesn't even spare me a glance. "Come, Brandy. And don't do anything stupid, I'm sure you wouldn't want to hurt yourself."

My hands continue to shake as I grab Elliot's book and shut off the car, then step out. Locking the car doors, I quickly follow behind Elijah as he enters the house. He walks straight into the kitchen and places Elliot down on the counter, before rummaging through the refrigerator. The gun stays around his waist.

I stand near the kitchen door, watching him. "Wh... what do you want?" I finally asked, breaking the silence.

Elijah pokes his head out from the fridge to look back at me, before averting his gaze back onto what he was doing. "That depends on what you mean Brandy." He answers, placing the mayo and ham on the kitchen counter. "I want world peace, a hot bath, cops to stop chasing me, bread."

"Bread?" I ask confused.

He chuckles slightly, placing the cheese and ketchup besides everything else. "No, I'm asking you where the bread is at." He clarifies. "As I was saying, I want plenty of things but as of right now the only three things I want from you is Shelter, My son, and of course that favor you promised me."

My heart drops.

So he does know that Elliot is his.

"You're my daddy?" Elliot asks, his eyes widening a bit. He looks back at me as if asking me to confirm.

"Yup, he's your dad," I say, pretending to be happy. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy, I just wished that they were meeting under better circumstances.

Elliot hugs him tightly. "I have a daddy." He says, happily. Elijah hugs him back.

Walking over to the pantry, I take the bread then hand it to Elijah. "What if I don't give you those things?" I ask boldly.

Elijah grabs my hand softly and stares me in the eyes, his blue eyes pierce my brown ones. "Then my son here," he says, glancing at Elliot, then back at me. "Will only grow up with one parent." Bending his head down to my ears he whispers, "No more mommy in the picture." I gasped, placing a hand over my mouth. Elijah places a kiss on my cheeks, just inches away from my ears. The kiss sends chills down my spine and so does the smirk he gives me. "Hand me a knife will yah."

Backing away slowly from him, I head towards the dishwasher and take out a knife. It's a big one, a really big one made for cutting deeply. The knife stays in my hand as I stare down at it, thinking of all the damage I can do to Elijah.

Stabbing him from behind would be easy, but him being so tall, he'd probably just backhand me and knock me over. That means cutting him in his vain, more like the one that leads to his leg would be... Elliot’s giggling snaps me out of my thoughts. Turning around quickly, I see how his smile widens as Elijah whispers something in his ears. "You're funny," Elliot says, looking at him.

My heart sinks. I couldn't kill Elijah in front of his son, that would traumatize Elliot to the bone. He'd probably even have a panic attack right then and there. "That's what everyone use to think kumpel," Elijah responds, smiling down at his son. With both of them together, you could see how much they resembled each other. "Refresh my memory, how old are you?"

Elliot raises five of his small fingers. "I'm five." He says, smiling.

"I can't show you with my fingers, but I can tell you. I'm thirty-one." He admits. "Your mommy is two years younger than me. And speaking about your mommy, she still hasn't brought me a knife yet."

"It's right here," I say, handing him the knife. He looks up at me, before taking it. It takes me a moment to realize that he doesn't have long dirty blond hair anymore, instead, he has a crew cut and his beard has been trimmed.

I watch as he makes a sandwich and shares half of it with Elliot. Elliot gladly eats it and doesn't even ask him to warm it up a bit. I'll admit, that had me feeling some type of way. "You want one or something?" Elijah asks, catching my gaze. "You've been mean mugging us for the last minute."

"I'm not mean mugging you guys." I shriek. "I'm just looking."

"Mmmh." He mumbles. "Did you get tall or something perle? You look different from the last time I saw you."

"I guess I probably grew an inch. And being pregnant, really changed my body." Is what comes out of my mouth. "What is the favor you need?"

Elijah shakes his head. "Not now, we'll talk later on it, I'm trying to spend some time with Elliot here." Anger boils within me. The way he speaks is as if, I'm a child and he's the adult. "My apologies for you going through your pregnancy alone. If it were my choice, I would've been there for you." He looks down at Elliot. "I wanna have family time. Is family time okay with you?"

Elliot nods. "Yes." He signs.

Elijah looks back at him surprised. "You know sign language?" He questions, signing back.

"Yes, mommy taught me it. It's because I'm different." Elliot signs.

Elijah looks back at me. "What does he mean different?"

"He has autism. He got diagnosed when he was very young." I say. "We use sign language to communicate with each other sometimes."

Elijah stares at me for a moment, before he cracks a small smile. He looks down at Elliot, picking up his chin. "My brother had Autism and so did my great grandfather, my uncle had it as well. Its been in the Müller family for centuries." Placing a kiss on Elliot's head, Elijah picks him up. "Your grandfather will be proud to hear this."

Elliot's eyes widen in amazement. "I have a grandpa?" He questions.

Elijah nods. "You do. He's old ass hell but for some reason, the old geast doesn't want to die."

Elliot's lip purse. "A...ass?" He repeats.

Oh god!

Now it was my turn for my eyes to widen. "Don't say that word again Elliot." I scold him. "It's a bad word."

"But daddy said it." Elliot resorts.

Elijah intervenes. "I'm a grown-up, which means I can say bad words. You're a kid, which means you can't."

Elliot pouts. "That's not fair." He says lowly.

"Life isn't fair bud. Come on let's go take a nap." I suggest. The quicker he fell asleep, the faster Elijah and me could finally talk and I could finally figure out this whole thing.

"Can you read me my book?" Elliot whispers.

"Sure thing bud," I answer, but Elliot quickly shakes his head no.

"Can daddy do it?" He questions.

It's official.

My son likes his dad more.

"Sure, daddy can read it to you." My eyes train on the ground as I pass Elliot his book. He gladly accepts it, then goes back to wrapping his arm around his father's neck.

Turning to walk away, large hands grasp my arm. "Where do you think you're going?” Elijah asks.

The words fumble out my mouth. "T...to my room?" It sounded more like a question than a statement. Let's be real, he scares the s**t out of me. And it's not like he didn't scare me that night in the club, but this was different... somewhat. He's an escaped felon, whose on the run. In other words, he can kill me and no one would ever know he did it. Or how we're even connected.

"I don't trust you yet, therefore you're coming with us," Elijah says, still holding onto my arm.

"I'm not going to call the cops or anything. I won't do anything to put my son's or my life in jeopardy." I say truthfully.

"I know you won't, but like I said before. I don't trust you yet. So come on perle." He says, tugging on my arm. Elijah begins to walk, dragging me along with him and Elliot up the stairs.

He doesn't trust me?

Yet he's making me do him a favor.

Once we get up there, Elijah sets Elliot on his bed and then joins him. He instructs me to sit on the wooden chair next to the bed and I listen. I watch as he props his arm up and lays his head on it. Elliot's head rests on his chest as he begins to read. "One morning before breakfast Mrs. Vancourt stepped out her terrace to look at the ocean..." Elijah continues to read, but I zone out.

My eyes drift from the room, analyzing everything.

Elliot's room had comic posters all over the light blue walls. The posters ranged from Marvel to Dc comics, which was mainly my idea. As usual Elliot's comforter was pulled over on his bed, it was green, which is his favorite color right now. He has a small lamp that sits on his dresser, near the side of his bed. On the farther side of the room, a black desk sat in one corner. Crayons and books laid on top of it and a few of Ej's glasses as well.

"He's asleep," Elijah says, bringing me back to reality.

Looking over at Elliot, I see that he's asleep with his mouth slightly opened. "Where do we start?" I ask.

"Come." He says, gesturing for me to come sit on the bed.

"Right here is fine with me and I'd like very much if you'd stop talking to me like I'm some child. It's annoying." It comes out my mouth so lethal, that I'm sure it pissed him off. But I didn't care, I was having enough of all of this.

"Alright then, you can stay there." He agrees. "And I'm sorry if it feels like I'm talking to you like a child. I'm just so use to being in charge." Elijah sits up on the bed. "There's that and you've changed from the last time I saw you."

My eyebrows raise. "I've grown up you mean. I'm not as gullible anymore." My back leans against the chair. "Can you get to the point about what you want."

Elijah let's out a dry chuckle. "On the night we met, you made a deal to complete a favor and now it's time to do so. As you may already know, I'm apart of the mafia and that night when we," He pauses, before continuing. "Made Elliot I knew that I'd be getting arrested. My cousin, Otto, he framed me and know I'm ready for revenge." He sighs. "Being betrayed by a family member is honestly the lowest thing that could happen in a person's life."

My head c***s to the side as I let out a breath. "What's the favor?"

"I was getting to that." Elijah snaps. "You are the final piece to my puzzle. You're going to help me rob my cousin dry. We're going to take everything he has."

I gulp. "Isn't there anything else that I could do to complete this favor?" I'm a mother for goodness sakes, not a robber. How the hell does he expects me to help him pull this off. Plus if we get caught I'm going to prison and then Elliot will have no one. Elijah shakes his head no, which leaves me broken. "I'm not equipped for this."

"Yes, you are. Hell, I'll train you to be." Elijah says standing up. "You need to help me do this."

I shake my head. "No! Aren't you apart of the mafia? Have your people help you do it."

"I can't!" He snaps, his voice getting loud. "My father has left this in my hands to fix. Being in the mafia is all about business and because I was too stupid to see that my own cousin would betray me, I'm on my own." He explains to me. "Taking down my cousin is the only way I can regain my dignity and it's the only way I can prove to my father and the mafia world that I'm fit to be the next leader. You have no choice, in this Brandy, you need to help me."

"How come?"

Elijah sighs. "I have two months to get this done if not my father will kill me and everyone else I've ever been associated with. Including you." He admits. "Elliot will be safe because he's my first born and in my family, no harm ever comes to the first born. If we die, my father will take him in."

"H...how does he even know about us?" I ask, taking everything in.

"From the moment we slept together, there have been people following you. It's how I knew you were pregnant and when you gave birth, it's also how I knew where you live and work." Elijah states. "There's always going to be people watching you. You and Elliot, especially him."

Everything that he said, replays in my head. Because of him, I'd be falling to my death sooner than later. And if I did die or get imprisoned, Elliot would have to be raised by Elijah's father, who sounds like a psycho if you ask me. Helping him or not helping him, I'm screwed either way. There's honestly no other way around it. I could go to the cops, but they'd do nothing because it's Atlanta and the cops are just pigs down here. There goes all my options.

Licking my lips, my mouth opens but then closes. It opens again and finally, I have the courage to ask,

"When do we start?"